Apple Magic Trackpad

As a few others have posted, I also have and often use both with my iPad. Trackpad is top left of keyboard and mouse to the right.

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Another vote for trackpad instead of mouse. I’ve used nothing but Magic Trackpads for at least half a dozen years, possibly almost a decade now. Although if I were to go both/and, I’d probably do it with a vertical mouse. My wrists don’t like mice, and when I tried to switch back to a large trackball I felt like couldn’t get things done nearly as easily as with the trackpad.

BTT allows you to “overclock” the cursor travel, but that may cause you to overshoot things. FWIW…

I use the Magic Trackpad with my iPad and the MX Master 3 with my Mac.

That said, the Apple Magic Trackpad is the ONLY trackpad I have found that works really well. Anything shipping on the corporate Windows laptops I’ve used over the years have been totally useless.

Thank you for sharing your experience.
For the time being, I think I will continue to use the excellent Logitech MX Master.

I’m also a mouse (MX Master) and Trackpad devotee, I used both for navigation however have an extensive set of trackpad gestures mapped to actions with BetterTouchTool. I like that these gestures are available when I’m using my laptop away from my desk.

I also have my iPad Pro 12.9” to the left of my monitor using universal control. I find it far better to navigate the iPad with the Trackpad.

Some examples of my must have gestures.

Four finger swipe
left - window to left half of screen
right - window to right half of screen
up - maximize window
down - hide window (command h)

Tip tap two fingers
left - copy
right - paste

Double tap two fingers - resize window and centre on current screen (like a focus mode)

Double tap three fingers - resize window to other monitor and centre

Double tap four fingers - quit app that is running

Just a few :slight_smile:

However if I had to only use one, I’d get rid of the mouse at this point, it’s taken me many years to get to this position.

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I’ve used the trackpad for so long now I wouldn’t know how to switch back to a mouse. The gestures are second nature and really enjoy the experience.

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I seem to be in the minority within the group of ‘two device’ people in that the right side of my keyboard has just an Apple Magic Mouse, not a fancy MX Master. :slight_smile: And of course a Magic Trackpad on the left.

I have come up with a really simple way of describing what I use each for. The trackpad is for ‘gross motor movements’ and the mouse for ‘fine control’. I do randomly switch between the two for simple tasks, but certain things always fall to one device.

Trackpad — switch Spaces, Exposé, back and forward in Safari, pinch-zooming.
Mouse — precision clicks (anything with a small target like window controls). precision drags (such as in graphics software), precision scrolling (if trying to position a scroll view for a screenshot for example).
Either — basic point and click, simple scrolling (like a web page).

I also find if I have to hold a drag for a long way, it’s easier on the trackpad because it does not require much pressure compared to holding the mouse down.

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I’m team Magic Trackpad only :blush:. Have been doing it for a couple of years now since a really got wrist pain from using a mouse and can’t imagine using any other device anymore.
After my wrist pain started I tried all sorts of ergonomic mice, Trackballs and for some time I settled on using a Wacom pen on my Windows Machine … that worked for my wrist but took quite some getting used to :blush:. Since I’m mostly working on a Mac now I do it all with a Trackpad … I love how to me the usage of all Apple Devices (Phone, iPad, Mac) feels similar now with hand gestures and such things.

Occasionally I use a mouse (either Magic Mouse or ergonomic random brand mouse) but my wrist starts hurting again pretty quickly so I switch back to my beloved Trackpad. My wife did the same recently and now we have like 4 Magic Trackpad at home :sweat_smile:

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I use the trackpad together with BTT and—I just counted—39 gestures. Try that with any mouse.

(I do keep a mouse handy—ha!—for occasional intensive graphics work or gaming.)

I recently got a Magic Trackpad from my work. I’m quite happy with my Logitech MX Master 3 mouse, as I have all of the extra buttons mapped to either Keyboard Maestro conflict palettes or PopClip. Now, I have been casually using the Trackpad in conjunction with the mouse, but primarily for swiping and scrolling, so I’d love to hear about any highly useful gestures for the Trackpad used in conjunction with apps like BetterTouchTool. @SteveMac has some nice ideas. @arasmus , any really useful ones from that list of 39 (!) you might share? I’m looking for ideas if anyone would like to share—thanks!

My keyboard has been flanked by a Logitech MX Master 3 on the right and a Magic Trackpad on the left for a few years, and before that I used a Magic Mouse. Every year or so (including about a week before this thread appeared), I put the mouse aside and try to use the trackpad alone for a while.

Mostly I like it, but two crucial issues always arise eventually, often in succession: text selection and right-clicking. I just cannot do either of them as quickly or as precisely with a trackpad as I can with a mouse. And I do them both a lot.

I always end up putting the mouse back into service and sliding the trackpad over to the left for scrolling and a few other gestures.

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Oh welcome to the BetterTouchTool rabbit hole, it goes deep, but it is fun. Here are a few more:

Another little tip, don’t forget the per application gestures, allows you to perform the same type of function across apps with the same gesture:

Tip Tap left two fingers is setup to archive or close window (ie archive in mail, close tab in safari etc)
Tip Tap right two fingers is setup to forward or open new tab (ie reply all in spark, new tab in safari, new document in pages)

I still use three finger swipe gestures, however specifically mapped (I’ve disabled all of the system ones), three finger up for Mission Control, down for application expose.

I’ve also setup the corner force click gestures for various things also, as they are reliable and not easily triggered.

I also love the “automations & named & other triggers”, you can do some great stuff here.

When screen unlocks, close all notifications (this gets rid of disk connection errors)
When my Apple Watch goes out of range, lock machine.
When battery goes below % percent, turn on low power mode
etc

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A few years ago I tried switching to the trackpad but I ended up getting a really painful hand half way through the day when using it.

So, I now have it on the left and use it for swiping, combined with a MX3, which has solved my aching hand!

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  • A tap on the top in the middle initiates a menubar search
  • Tap left or right corners to launch Safari or Chrome
  • Tap on either side edge in the middle to show/hide sidebar or inspectors (KBM knows how to do it when apps do it differently)
  • Tap bottom left corner: conflict palette with common password (from Keychain Access, of course!)
  • Tap bottom edge middle: Flash the current date/time on the screen so I’m not always checking my watch during a long zoom call
  • I use tip-tap left and right to navigate tabs in a browser or wherever
  • 2 finger double tap: screen capture
  • 2 finger force click: context menu
  • 2 finger swipe left/right: page navigation (e.g. browser back/forward)
  • 3 finger tap: brings up an app-specific palette of actions
  • 3 finger swipe left/right: move eindow to the next monitor
  • 3 finger swipe up: App expose
  • 3 finger swipe down: Mission control
  • 4 finger swipe left: previous app
  • 4 finger swipe up: previous window
  • 4 finger swipe down: hide this app
  • 5 finger swipe right: show desktop

Those are the greatest hits. I also have some for actions specific to my workflow. 39 seems like a crazy number to have to remember, but I use all of those actions often enough that it’s soon muscle memory.

Trackpad, BTT and KBM for the win!

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I’m another one of the many people who puts the trackpad on the left and the mouse on the right. I’m in Figma all day, so it is useful for me to have a quick way to pan and zoom around. I also value the precision of a mouse pointer for my design work. The ancillary benefit of the whole thing is that I’m also able to scroll with my left hand while sipping a beverage with my right.

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I (currently) have an ergo tenting style keyboard at my desk so I use a trackpad slightly underneath it, mostly in the centre. Usually use that with my right hand (it’s a similar location to on a laptop), and use a trackball with my left hand. I find this naturally leaves me using each about 50% of the time which seems to help with reducing strain.

My Magic Trackpad and Magic Keyboard are next to the stand I use with my iPad Pro. I use a compact Logitech mouse with my MacBook

Lots of interesting ideas here—thanks for sharing! Certain gestures that would do the same thing across different appplications sounds like a very good idea.

Those greatest hits sound really useful—thanks for sharing! I’ll start adding a few incrementally and see where I go with this.